Has the Media Killed Healthcare Reform?

The Nation's editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, joins a panel discussion on the media's coverage of healthcare and the Gates arrest.

By

July 31, 2009

Recent polls have shown more and more Americans doubting Obama’s stance
on health care, though the majority is still generally supportive. With
Republicans and conservative Democrats balking at reform while right
wing pundits condemn his plans, will Obama go the way of Clinton when it
comes to healthcare?

Most agree the issue of healthcare is getting sufficient coverage and
exposure in the mainstream media, but is it getting the right kind of
coverage? The topic has often been belittled to another means of
partisan divide, and most citizens still lack basic knowledge of reform
plans in favor of rhetoric from one side or the other.

Mainstream media reaction to Henry Louis Gates’ arrest and its aftermath
continued to fill the airwaves, with Glenn Beck commenting on Obama’s
“racism” and desire for “reparations,” Rush Limbaugh accusing him of
trying to ruin a white police officer and Michele Malkin calling him a
“racial opportunist.”

To discuss these topics and more we’re joined by Hendrik Hertzberg,
Senior Editor and Staff Writer for The New Yorker, along with Editor and
Publisher of The Nation Katrina Vanden Heuvel, and Nancy Giles,
contributor for CBS News Sunday Morning.

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